About this mod

This overhaul mod changes a number of X-Com features and settings to create a far longer and more intense conflict with the aliens. X-Com soldiers now have eight classes and have an array of new items to employ. You may bring eight soldiers on missions and retake countries for X-Com through multiple alien base assaults.

Credits and distribution permission

Other user's assetsAll the assets in this file belong to the author, or are from free-to-use modder's resources

Upload permissionYou are not allowed to upload this file to other sites under any circumstances

Modification permissionYou must get permission from me before you are allowed to modify my files to improve it

Conversion permissionYou are not allowed to convert this file to work on other games under any circumstances

Asset use permissionYou must get permission from me before you are allowed to use any of the assets in this file

Asset use permission in mods/files that are being soldYou are not allowed to use assets from this file in any mods/files that are being sold, for money, on Steam Workshop or other platforms

Author notes

Our policies on distributing mods to Long War:

* You have unrestricted permission to distribute alternate ini files for players to install* You have unrestricted permission to distribute alternate int / localization files for players to install* You have unrestricted permission to distribute UPKUtils mods that change core Long War upk files -- really, it isn't even our place to expect to give permission for these.* If you are a modder who contributed to the mod, of course you have permission to redistribute your own work in other mods.* However, you do NOT have permission to alter and separately release our upk files, specifically XComGame.upk, XComStrategyGame.upk, and LongWar.upk.

If you want to make small mods to those files, we strongly encourage you to use UPKUtils: It is more user-friendly; players can install and uninstall individual mods at will; it won't overwrite other small mods players have made, and your mod is very likely future-proofed and will not need further updating when we update Long War.

If you are working on a huge overhaul based on Long War and still think redistributing our core files is the way to go, contact johnnylump via PM on the Nexus. Again, permission isn't granted unless we say so.

Thanks to other modders who have made various discoveries used in this mod, including: WGhost81 (randomized pod placement and other developments), Uberjumper, Drakous79, Bertilsson, Bokuak, BlackAlpha, Guicomir, MuckBeth, Peasly Wellbott, Oddball_E8

Included software:XCOMEUModHelper by UberJumper

Acknowledgements:Amineri and XMarksTheSpot for UPKModderEliot van Uytfanghe for UE Explorertwinj for discovering how to rescript functionsGildor for Unreal Package DecompessorInno Setup 5, by JRSoftware.orgAlso special thanks to Neonin for the Long War logo on the Nexus mod page! Check out Neonin's UI Texture Replacement mod for livelier in-game icons and other graphics: http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/382//?

PRAISE FOR LONG WAR"Takes XCOM to a new level." - Jake Solomon, XCOM lead designer, via Twitter"We're basically a 20-hour tutorial for Long War, and that's okay." -- Solomon, via IGN"This mod is the absolute best way to play XCOM" - Wired"This is a collection of profound and surprisingly careful changes ... It's like a free expansion pack ... " - Rock, Paper, Shotgun"Terrific ..." - Kokatu"Turns XCOM: Enemy Within into nothing short of a serviceable turn-based military alien invasion strategy wargaming simulator." - PolygonNamed by PC Gamer one of the 15 most brutal mods of all time and in November 2014 was the site's Mod of the Week.

THANK YOU TO ALL OUR DONORS!Check out John Lumpkin's (johnnylump) science fiction novels, Through Struggle, the Stars and The Desert of Stars, here.And take a look at Long War artist lfish's portraits and illustrations here.And voice actor Ian Chisholm's film Clear Skies here.

READ THIS README, ESPECIALLY THE FAQ. IT EXPLAINS SOME MAJOR CHANGES FROM VANILLA. This mod makes hundreds of changes, large and small, to the vanilla version of the game. It is harder and longer than the vanilla version but gives you many more tools to combat the alien threat.

Some of the changes in this mod include:

An extended campaign requiring far more missions to complete

Tactical missions that allow up to twelve XCom soldiers per mission with the right upgrades

English-accent voicepacks for soldiers from England, Australia and several other nations

New and modified perks, including Ranger, Sapper, HEAT Warheads, Lock N' Load, Fire in the Hole, Hit and Run, and Javelin Rockets

New and modified technologies, including Xenopsionics, Alien Biocybernetics, Pulse Lasers, Gauss Weapons and Advanced Aerospace Concepts, and many new foundry projects

Five tiers of XCOM weaponry, many new armors and small items and S.H.I.V.s that can be equipped with perk-granting small items! See some of the new weapons here.

Earlier access to psionics and an expanded psionics tree

A system of commissioning and promoting XCOM officers who provide bonuses to your entire squad during missions (replaces the Enemy Within medals system)

Overhauled interception game, with five new UFO classes such as the Fighter, Raider and Harvester, as well as six interceptors per continent, foundry projects to upgrade your aircraft, individualized pilot names and pilot experience, and the Stingray Missile weapon system

Overhauled strategy game, in which the aliens gather resources and conduct research -- efforts XCOM must interdict if it hopes to save humanity. XCOM can now retake countries by finding and conquering alien bases in those countries. Help council countries defend themselves by fulfilling their requests for alien technology!

Aliens and EXALT forces grow tougher over time, gaining stats and perks

New weapons for XCOM soldiers

Soldiers rest after each mission, requiring the player to build a much deeper roster of soldiers

Modified Second Wave options to support longer campaigns

Training mode config file for easier campaigns

Most of the specific changes will be detailed in in-game text. Many game mechanics have changed, so read perk, tech and item descriptions closely! They may not do what you expect from vanilla.

Perk trees for all classes are in the file Long_War_3_perk_tree.jpg in your XEW directory, or here.

Tech tree is in the file Long_War_3_tech_tree.png in your XEW directory, or here.

You must have a legitimate PC, Mac or Linux version of Enemy Within to play this mod. This mod is for games with the March 10, 2014, patch, what we're calling Enemy Within Patch 3. The game version is still listed as 401776.

An Enemy Unknown version of this mod (with fewer features) is available in the Files section. It has not been updated to work with EU patches 5 and 6 (too much work), so you have to take extra steps to roll back your XCOM EU installation to patch 4, with this tool. For help with installation of the EU version, check out Phwop's tutorial, here.

Instructions

If you have ever played with any other mods on your EW install, or have changed some files yourself, verify back to a vanilla installation of EW before installing Long War. If you have any trouble with installation, do this as well.

Disable any antivirus software. We have specific reports that Comodo security software prevents a proper install, and BitDefender free crashes the game on startup.

When you select your path to install the mod, you should receive a warning that the directory already exists. If you didn't, have you may have missed a step.

Start the game once. You may receive a crash to desktop (CTD) error; this appears to be some aspect of the mod completing installation and then making nice with Steam. Start it again, and it should run.

If you have been playing vanilla XCOM in a language other than the one you installed it in, switch XCOM to the installed Long War language via its properties in Steam.

Notes

This mod will overwrite several game files and likely render multiplayer unplayable until you uninstall.

A Mac and Linux version is available via separate downloads.

The mod will not work properly on vanilla Enemy Within campaigns, so you'll need to start a new one. Campaigns are saved even if you uninstall, so you should be able to return to vanilla campaigns. Long War campaigns probably won't work well in vanilla.

If Firaxis/2K Games issues any patches to vanilla XCOM, it will overwrite and disable Long War, and almost certainly make the mod unplayable until the modders are able to update it. Unfortunately, turning off automatic updates to the game in Steam, via the game's Steam Library context menu ? Properties ? Updates tab, does not prevent patches from loading. Your savegames should be preserved, though.

If you want to use alternate game textures via TexMod, install them AFTER you fully install Long War.

If you install this mod over an existing version you won't be able to uninstall back to vanilla; to do so, you'll have to go to Steam and use the Verify Integrity of Game Cache option (under the game's Steam Library context menu ? Properties ? Local Files tab) to restore your game to its original settings. You should also do this if something goes wrong with the uninstall.

If you get multiple CTDs upon boot, or when starting the first mission, or you start with only four soldiers, or see graphical glitches with some of the new weapons, try the following steps:

Delete or rename the file profile.bin and start the game. You may have to re-set your graphics and other settings ingame after this.

Start the game and see if it works.

Install Long War EW again, over the current copy. This will probably make the included uninstaller not work, so you'll have to verify back to vanilla via Steam to uninstall.

If you are getting slowdowns in plays or CTDs when loading user settings, try the following:

Delete old savegames you aren't using anymore

Turn off cloud synchronization of your saves

Play in offline mode

If those steps don't work, please check the extended troubleshooting file in your XCOM directory and any bugfixes (on the Nexus forums). If your issue isn't listed, we want detailed feedback on all of those things on the Long War EW feedback forum. Make sure you post your difficulty level, any Second Wave options you are using, and whether you started a campaign under this version, or a prior one. If you have a CTD, please follow the instructions in the readme for reporting crash logs to us. General Questions

Q: I love this! Can I give you something?A: For those who want to directly support the modders, you can do so here, but we are not allowed to request, reward or publicly acknowledge any specific gifts (sorry, but we really are deeply grateful), in accordance with Nexus policies that prohibit any kind of appearance of selling the mod. In addition, you're always welcome to buy JohnnyLump's sci-fi novels through his homepage here.

Q: I'm fairly new to XCom. What difficulty should I start with?A: Normal.

Q: I'm an XCOM veteran. What difficulty should I start with?A: Normal.

Q: But I'm really awesome at -- A: Sorry to interrupt, but just start with Normal. We don't have easy difficulties in this mod that hold your hand while you learn the ropes and we've removed every bit of code we can find that cheats for the player on the lower difficulties. It's going to be hard. The other difficulties are just harder versions of Normal; feel free to move up when you get a handle on all the new mechanics.

Q: Say what? Ten HP Outsiders with regeneration in the first downed UFO mission? I love all the new XCOM options but don't like the difficulty. Why did you make a mod that is so hard?A: This mod was made by people who loved the vanilla game and saw lots of opportunities within the engine for much deeper strategic and tactical play and a greater variety of problems to throw at the player. When someone tells us it is too hard, there might be any of three things going on:

The player hasn't adapted to the changes in the mod and expects their suboptimal strategies to succeed (we believe this is the case with outsiders). We have a Long War Strategy subforum you can go to for advice.

The player's definition of fun is different from ours; they expect the game to provide them easier situations, make solutions more readily available or be geared to provide the illusion of challenge but actually make it pretty easy to win. In this case the player should play an easier difficulty setting and/or use the Cinematic Mode Second Wave option, which gives accuracy bonuses to both XCOM troops and aircraft. They player can also mod Long War to their personal preferences or play another mod. Long War isn't for everyone.

The mod really is unreasonably hard (or bugged in a way that makes it too hard) and should be changed. Specific feedback about the situation and how you attempted to address helps us; general complaints about difficulty really won't induce us to make any changes.

Q: I want to mod feature X myself. How do I do that?A: Many, many game settings are contained in the file DefaultGameCore.ini in the game's Config folder, which can be edited with a text editor, and your changes should take effect the next time you load the mod (no other changes are usually necessary!). In-game text is in .INT files in the localilzation folder. If it's not in either of those files, you'll probably have to make hex changes to the game's *.upk files, which is considerably more complicated. See the Modding Long War subforum or the general XCOM Mod Talk forum on the Nexus Forums for details.

Q: Okay, I get it; it's hard. But I'm a casual player without a ton of time or Grognard levels of strategery. What starting settings would you recommend?A: Play normal difficulty with only the Dynamic War and Cinematic Mode Second Wave options activated. This is probably somewhere close to vanilla classic levels of difficulty and Marathon duration.

Q: It's still too hard.A: Long War includes an alternate config file that contains most of the settings of the game. The file is "DefaultGameCore.ini" and it is in your equivalent of C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\XCom-Enemy-Unknown\XEW\XComGame\Config. Go there, and you'll find a file, DefaultGameCore - Training.ini. Rename it DefaultGameCore.ini (after renaming the regular version of the file) and you will find a set of four easier settings to play. Note that text is unchanged, the fourth level is still called "impossible," although it is not.

Q: I'm made of tough and insist on playing Ironman.A: You're not really asking a question, but understand there could be campaign-ending bugs or corrupted savegame issues that we can't do anything about. Periodically back up your savegames or face the prospect of losing all your work. You've been warned.

Q: I want you guys to add feature X. How do I tell you?A: Post in the Long War Feature Requests and Suggestions subforum. We do read the suggestions and have adopted many of them that sound fun and are technically feasible. We can't always reply, though.

Q: I want to make some changes and redistribute my version of your mod. May I?A: Contact JohnnyLump via the Nexus messaging system. Permission is NOT granted unless he says it's OK.

Q: Can you make a shorter version of Long War?A: Try the "Dynamic War" Second Wave option.

Q: Can you make a longer version of Long War?A: Try the "Liberators" Second Wave option.

Q: Do I still have to disable phone home like in Long War Enemy Unknown?A: No longer! The mod fixes the game's executable so that is no longer required.

Q: Can I use other mods like ToolBoks with Long War?A: It depends, but probably not. Other large-scale overhaul mods (if anyone ever makes any others) will not be compatible, nor will mods that change INI settings or in-game text by overwriting INI and INT files. Mods that make individual changes *may* be compatible if they search and replace hex. If they search by absolute offset within the *.upk files (like ToolBoks does), they will not be compatible unless they are made specifically for Long War. Keep an eye on the Modding Long War subforum; we'll post possible changes you can make yourself if they are easy to implement and frequently requested.

Q: I keep getting the same maps every other mission! Is there a fix?A: Press Alt+F10 once during the game. The only feedback you will see is the XCOM shield spinning briefly in the lower-right corner, but this resets the file that tracks which maps you've already played. What is happening is some of Long War's repurposed maps are being treated as "new" and repeatedly pushed to the top of the queue; by resetting your log the game will treat all maps equally.

Q: I installed the mod, but got error 0xc0000142 when I try to run the game.A: This error is known to occur when people install mods on pirated copies of XCOM. The mod only works with legitimate Steam versions of the mod. This includes the boxed DVD version, which requires Steam to install. While this occurs because of something the pirates did (and not us), we don't support pirated versions and will not troubleshoot these problems; the solution is to buy a legit copy of the game.

Gameplay QuestionsQ: How do I win?A: Win the Temple Ship mission, same as vanilla.

Q: How do I lose?A: All 16 council countries have to defect from XCOM. That's it. A successful assault by the aliens on XCOM HQ no longer ends the game.

Q: Hey, I lost a country with little panic in the first month! Is that supposed to happen?A: Yes. And if the aliens grow strong enough, they'll do this again, although you can stop those missions once launched (it's just really hard). Find and defeat the alien base in lost countries and you can get them back.

Q: A really big UFO just landed in my home country in March! How am I supposed to beat that?A: Basically, you're not (it's possible, though). The aliens have an active strategy now, gathering resources and conducting research and going on other missions not directly related to XCOM's operations. They're going to do their thing, and sometimes you'll cross paths with them when they are doing something they feel is rather important and have brought along a massive force to defend it. The penalties for XCOM aborting that mission early on are usually small, so don't feel obligated to sacrifice your force to win that one.

Q: It's early in the campaign and I just ran into a mission with tons of powerful aliens. How am I supposed to beat that?A: Again, you're not. Part of the tactical challenge of the mod is to recognize a bad situation and retreat. Of course, later in the game, the aliens' development may outpace yours.Q: What's that little shield by each country in the Situation Room?A: That represents the country's ability to defend itself from the alien incursions. Fulfilling council requests from that country fills the shield and increases that country's ability to resist panic increases caused by alien activity and helps protect any satellites overhead from detection by alien scouts.

Q: Why do all my starting soldiers have Gene Mod armor?A: That's a new armor, the tac vest, which anyone can wear. Long War Enemy Within introduces 7 new armors (for a total of 14) generally built as lighter armors allowing more mobility at some cost of protection; we used the Gene Mod armor bases to represent these armors. If you don't like the look, try some of the alternate decos, which will minimize the sleeveless effect.

Q: Why do my starting soldiers have EXALT weapons?A: EXALT weapons have been repurposed in Long War and now serve as the default ballistic weapon set (along with the traditional shotgun). EXALT lasers are now the Beam Laser class of weapons; vanilla XCOM ballistic weapons are now the Gauss class of weapons, and XCOM lasers are now the Pulse Laser class of weapons.

Q: One of my weapons did zero damage after a hit! Is that supposed to happen?A: Yes. When this happens, you'll usually see a blue icon with a shield and a number. That's a measure of Damage Reduction, i.e. how much damage bounced off the enemy after a hit.

Q: I just bagged a sectoid that had mind-merged to another sectoid, but it didn't die; it only took some damage. Is that supposed to happen?A: Yes. XCOM psionic troopers can get mind-merge, too, and we suspect you wouldn't want the effect to kill two XCOM troopers at once, would you?

Q: My soldier's status shows "fatigued." What does that mean?A: After missions, soldiers need to rest for several days to recover from the intensity of combat and exposure to strange alien chemistry. During this time, they will not be auto-loaded into mission rosters. You can still send them on a mission (with no loss in capability), but after the mission they will suffer a light wound, representing exhaustion, and will be unavailable until they recover.

Q: Why are my arc thrower stun chances so low?A: Arc Throwers are no longer nearly automatic; your best case is a 55 to 60 percent chance to stun an alien. This is to make capturing aliens a meaningful and dangerous challenge. With Long War's increased mission count, you'll have far more opportunities to stun aliens and get their stuff, and you wouldn't want Alien Containment to overflow, would you?

Q: I only got a few Meld from a canister on the first mission? Is that supposed to happen?A: Yes. The amount of Meld you get will vary, based on something we'll let you figure out.

Q: I saved some of the civilians on a terror mission but panic still went up! Is that supposed to happen?A: Yes. Your job on terror missions is to minimize damage by saving lives; every civilian killed raises panic in both the country and on the continent.

Q: II captured an alien but can't interrogate it. What's up with that?A: Review the tech tree and you'll see that you need to perform an autopsy on a species before being able to interrogate it.

Q: How do I set default colors for my soldiers?A: Look for the file DefaultGameCore.ini, which is in C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/SteamApps/common/XCom-Enemy-Unknown/XEW/XComGame/Config in a standard Steam installation. Open it in a text editor like Notepad. About 40 percent of the way down you'll see a comment Initial soldier appearance. The next several lines set various default appearance numbers for various classes. EDIT THIS FILE AT YOUR OWN RISK. The range of allowed colors and styles are in a separate text file, Long_War_EW_Armor_Kit_Codes.txt.

Q: I have lots of detailed questions about mechanisms within the game. Is there a wiki?A: Work on one has begun on the UFOpaedia, here. It needs contributions.

SoftwareXCOMEUModHelper by UberJumperUPKModder by Amineri and XMarksTheSpotUE Explorer by Eliot van UytfangheUnreal Package Decompressor by GildorInno Setup 5 by JRSoftware.org

PeopleThe fine folks at Firaxis and 2k Games for the new XCOMJulian Gollop for the original X-COMtwinj for discovering how to rescript functionsXCOM modders Bokauk, BlackAlpha, Guicomir, MuckBeth, Peasly Wellbott, Oddball_E8 for various discoveriesGugacurado, Ogel, Tapkomet, Thunder_GR for contributing their custom lists of soldier names, and Heramael for copyediting servicesAlso special thanks to Neonin for the Long War logo on the Nexus mod page! Check out Neonin's [url=http://www.nexusmods.com/xcom/mods/382/]UI Texture Replacement mod for livelier in-game icons and other graphics!